Gambrills man, 25, sentenced for 'sadistic' child porn collection

A 25-year-old Gambrills man was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison for possession of child pornography, including images depicting "sadistic and violent conduct" toward children, according to prosecutors.

Robert Jay Hudson II, who pleaded guilty to the charge in July, will also have to serve 40 years of supervised release after his incarceration and be registered as a sex offender wherever he lives, works or attends school, the office of Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said.

Hudson's collection of pornography was first brought to the attention of Anne Arundel County Police in April 2011, after Hudson let someone use his computer and that person saw the images, according to the plea agreement in the case.

Police obtained a search warrant for Hudson's home and seized a desktop computer, a separate hard drive and a media player. On the devices they discovered child pornography, including images of "prepubescent children in diapers and adults engaged in sadistic conduct with the children," prosecutors said.

In November 2011, an undercover Maryland State Trooper began interacting with Hudson online. Hudson "expressed a sexual interest in children" and the officer was able to download more child pornography from a file-sharing program Hudson was using, according to prosecutors.

Hudson and the trooper then arranged a meeting where Hudson believed he was going to receive more child pornography, prosecutors said. He was arrested instead.

Police searched Hudson's home again and seized a laptop, hard drive and USB drive "containing 627 images and 144 videos of child pornography with children under the age of 12," prosecutors said.

The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative under the Department of Justice, and Operation Predator, a similar Homeland Security Investigations program.